should I take flagyl/ antibiotic?

So A week ago I saw my MD who prescribes LDN (I posted about this). He was shocked at how long Ive suffered (almost a year with this flare, well, a year), and suggested that I should have taken a course of cipro... and he said (quite confidently I will add) that had I taken cipro, I would be much better... How he can be SO sure, Im not sure, but so he said.

Now, I have been very slowly improving, but the last few days have been rougher.. increased blood, chills, etc, as well as a step backwards in stool firmness. I do tend to vacillate, but Im not too happy about the return to the grim.

My question is, should I take a round of antibiotics? With probiotics?

Currently on LDN, asacol, curcumin, other sups, etc.

Flagyl has helped me out of some tough situations...if you've never been on antibiotics to aid with your IBD, I strongly suggest you try for yourself to see how it goes for you (we're all different) and definitely you should be taking a good probiotic, daily and indefinitely and especially while on antibiotics...key is to take your probiotics at least 2 hours AFTER you're done taking your antibiotics for the day...good luck!

That's not a stupid question at all. It is very possible that you can have a bad reaction to the wrong probiotic. I had to quit Renew Life Critical Colon and just the other day I took one Florastor capsule and almost immediately began having bloody diarrhea. Your best bet is to note your symptoms before the probiotic and after. VSL has always been good to me. I am beginning to think, and have read, that it is actually better to load up on just a few strains or just one rather than taking something that has a bunch of strains. It's all about balancing the bacteria in the gut and I am beginning to believe that there is a big imbalance of just a few strains and it we can figure out which strains it will greatly improve our condition. If you load up too much on a strain you already have then it could make your imbalance even worse. It's also possible that your immune system is attacking one particular strain and if you take more of that particular strain your immune system will attack even harder, making you worse.

 

I think Flagyl helped me when I was in bad shape and unable to taper off prednisone but I was in a situation where I couldn't get any worse. I am not sure about taking an antibiotic while you feel you're seeing improvement, there is the chance of things getting worse, though I have to say, I don't often hear of people getting worse on Flagyl, either nothing happens, they can't stand the awful side effects of they have positive benefit. Maybe someone else will chime in with a horrible Flagyl causing their UC to flare up story but I can't think of any off-hand.

Freddy, You are your own example. If it worked for you before then I would definetly ask for it again, especially since your doc wanted to throw you on an antibiotic anyway. I am beginning to think those C-Diff tests don't mean much because I have read that they usually give you three different tests on three different days because of so many false negatives. If they can have that many false negatives then it is possible you could even have three false negatives. Most doctors don't even give you two tests, let alone three.

I don't understand the parasite testing at all. With me I think they just tested for two toxins of C-Diff (there are actually three). I believe any parasite testing is just a bunch of bull. What parasites are they testing for? There are thousands of parasites that could wind up in your system and some probably live in us normally anyway. As far as I know there is no such thing as a test to just test for parasites. Any actual parasite testing I think would have to test for particular parasites and since there are thousands that would seem to be a rather useless test unless they can test for thousands. What I'm trying to say is that no matter what your parasite test says you could still have a parasite which is what is causing your problems. The flagyl may have worked on these parasites before and put you into remission but they might not have killed those parasites 100% and now they have repopulated. I think you owe it to yourself to take flagyl again and see what happens.

freddyj, I apologize for asking a question on your thread, I'm going to start another about probiotics

I had a sinus infection recently that would not go away and finally had to break down and take antibiotics. The doc wanted to give me Augmentin but that has always torn my insides up. I took a Z-pack instead and took probiotics twice a day to counteract. I do believe the Z-pack HELPED my proctitis because my BMs were more formed and I had less urgency. Now being off the Z-pack for about two weeks, things are still holding steady and I have been able to taper the enemas to every other night.